Ashes tour is now down to individual responsibility, not team spirit

We’ve seen and heard a lot from this England side over the past few days about team talks and huddles and spirit and the rest of it, but what the rest of this Ashes tour will boil down to now is individual responsibility.

It’s all well and good saying you’re all in it together, but every player in this squad now has to ask himself whether he’s got the pride and the bottle to take on these Aussies in 40 degree heat and with the whole of Australia laughing at them.

I know from personal experience that it’s not easy. Everything in Australia can feel as if it’s against you, from the media to the fans to the heat. But there’s only one way of dealing with it all, and that’s to be honest with yourself about whether you’re still up for the fight.

VIDEO Scroll down to watch Paul Newman: England have no desire, no fight and no heart

Up for the fight? England need to show they can handle the heat put on them by the Aussies for the remainder of the tour. Here, Michael Carberry shows some resistance against the Australian attack

I’m sorry, but scoring 251 on a flat Perth pitch where only a couple of balls have hit a crack and misbehaved just isn’t good enough.

England got the tempo of their first innings all wrong after batting pretty well to get to 84 without loss. It was as if they emerged from the defeat at Adelaide, where wickets were thrown away, with the view that they had to make Australia’s bowlers produce something special to get them out.

But this is where the presence of Joe Root at No 3 is a concern for me. Michael Carberry and Alastair Cook had been going along at a decent lick. What they needed was a fluent batsman in next , which is why I’d have Ian Bell at first drop.

Poor: Kevin Pietersen was dismissed by Peter Siddle for the tenth time in test cricket

Instead, they lost one wicket and went into their shells – not just Cook and Root, but Kevin Pietersen too. The way Pietersen batted was a worry. It’s as if he can only do one extreme or the other.

And after seeing off Mitchell Johnson, he seemed to decide he had to go after Peter Siddle, despite the fact Siddle had already got him nine times in Test cricket.

I just think Pietersen doesn’t like knuckling down, which is why he doesn’t seem to know how to do it.

I’d just like to see him bat normally and go through the gears. But when Siddle came on, he immediately played this wafty drive outside off, then tried to pull him over mid-on.

It’s all very well to say that’s the way he bats, and it’s probably true that no one will ever be able to change Kevin Pietersen. But to keep on getting out the same way does not send the right message to his team-mates.

Big miss: Jonathan Trott left the Ashes tour early and his teammates have missed his ability to calm them down

What happened in the England innings here has been a reminder of how much this side are missing Jonathan Trott, someone with an ability to calm down his colleagues while getting the under the skin of the opposition.

But Trott’s gone, and England now have to find a way of salvaging something from this tour.

There’s still a second innings to come in this Test, and then the games at Melbourne and Sydney.

Sloppy: Matthew Prior has not shown his best form during the Ashes series so far

Beyond that, Australia are coming over in 2015. So it’s up to England to prove here and now that they aren’t a team to roll over and have their tummy tickled.

From what I’ve seen so far in this Test, they just have a sloppy feel to them. You often look at the wicketkeeper as a barometer of a team’s spirits, and Matthew Prior’s game has summed it up – a loose dismissal and a couple of missed stumpings.

That doesn’t mean, however, that I’d recommend wholesale changes. Some of these guys – Cook, Pietersen, Bell, Prior, Jimmy Anderson – will go down as all-time England greats. There is talent in this team.

Proud: An Australia supporter waves the Australian flag during day three of the third Ashes Test